NEW DELHI: After a prolonged wait, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday cleared the controversial Great Nicobar Project worth Rs 80,000 crore, after disposing of the challenges against it.
A six-member special bench of NGT found no substantial grounds to interfere with the mega infrastructure project, observing that adequate safeguards had been incorporated into its environmental clearance.
Conservationists had opposed it, saying it will cause massive ecological damage and threaten tribal communities. The Congress called the NGT clearance “deeply disappointing”. Party leader Sonia Gandhi had warned last year that it poses an existential danger to the island’s indigenous communities and is being insensitively pushed through by the government.
During the hearing, the special bench recorded that all emerging concerns had been examined and addressed by a high-powered committee tasked with revisiting the project’s environmental clearance granted in 2022. “Considering the strategic importance of the project and taking into account the other relevant considerations, we don’t find any good ground to interfere,” NGT chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava said.
The project is expected to boost India’s presence in the Indian Ocean Region amid increasing pressures from foreign powers. The project spans 166 sq km and requires the diversion of 130 sq km of forest land. A transshipment port, along with several associated projects such as a dual-use civil and military airport will be built in the Great Nicobar Island.